


Dance Lesson

by orphan_account



Category: Ever After High
Genre: Apple is very gay, Dancing, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 02:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6101560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Apple finds dance lessons a little bit more exciting when she gets to dance with Darling</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance Lesson

"As I'm sure you're all aware," Maid Marian says, a broad smile on her face as she opens the door to the Grimmnasium with a flourish, "many of your stories will involve a dance with your true love. So, it's important that you all learn partner dancing. For this, we'll be joining up with the boys."

Raven pretends to gag, her face winded into a grimace, and Apple nudges her side.

"Come on Raven, it'll be fun!" Apple says.

"You can't seriously enjoy this sort of thing." Raven grumbles.

"Oh course I do! I-"

"Girls." Maid Marian interrupts, making Apple blush. "Unfortunately, there aren't enough boys for everyone to partner up with, so I'm afraid that one of you girls will have to play the man's part. Does anyone want to volunteer?"

Apple's blush lingers, and she looks around at the other girls in the class, most of whom are shuffling their feet and avoiding Maid Marian's gaze, apart from Darling, whose eager smile was magnetising enough that Apple couldn't help staring at her as she raised her hand.

"I'll do it." Darling volunteers, still smiling.

"Thank you Darling! You're very considerate." Maid Marian says, resting her hand on Darling's shoulder as Darling's grin widens.

"Alright, girls! I'll be pairing you up. Raven, why don't you go with Daring."

"Ugh, gross." Raven says, scowling but still moving over to stand next to Daring. Daring smiles charmingly at her but Raven still refuses to even look at him.

"Oh, Apple." Maid Marian says and Apple snaps her gaze away from her friend and towards her teacher. "Why don't you go with Darling?"

"Of course!" Apple says, trying to ignore the heavy beating of her heart. She walks over to Darling and stands next to her, overly conscious of the warmth she can feel through the short distance between them.

"You don't need to worry." Darling whispers to her. "I helped Dexter practise, so I know both parts to this dance."

"Oh, that's good." Apple whispers back, focusing on keeping a smile on her face and not the creeping heat she can feel rising up her neck. It was ridiculous really, how fast she was coming undone, already struggling to appear normal and in control. Apple has been to dances before, ones with far more people in them than this, and she never reacted like this, her stomach an endless swirl of nerves, making her feel like the ground had given way underneath her, uncertainty funneling around her like the wind.

"Are you alright?" Apple hears Darling ask, snapping her out of her reverie, Darling's hand brushing down Apple's arm.

"I'm fine!" She says off the cuff, before sighing. "I'm a little nervous, to be honest."

"That's okay." Darling replies gently. "I'll be patient."

"Well," Maid Marian interrupts. "You should all know the steps, so I don't see any reason why we should delay any longer." She starts winding the gramophone, letting the music spill into the hall. It's a familiar tune, and far too associated with engagements such as these, and formal dinner parties, for Apple to ever truly appreciate it's own merits. It's the kind of song whose voice shadows your footsteps, whispers it's company through every year you tread through, too familiar to hate, too often repeated to be loved.

Apple turns to Darling with an easily falsified smile on her face. She's been through a thousand dances, there should be nothing new, or difficult here. A voice still begs for her attention, scratches at the back door of her mind, reminding her that it's never quite been like this before, she's not ever danced with a girl before, never felt so nervous since her very first lessons, and even then, not like this, scared in the most truly sublime way, fear and excitement swirling around in her stomach, her veins, until it almost feels like her very bones have been turned into magic, thrilling her body, her mind with it's song. The smile she had painted on cracks, and one closer to the way she feels slips through, a lopsided and inelegant show of emotion, but she doesn't quite mind anymore.

"May I have this dance, Miss White?" Darling asks, her voice as delightfully melodious as birdsong in the early morning, and with her hand outstretched, a shadow of the image one would expect of a Prince, and a Knight, and somehow so similar and so different all at once. 

Apple can see Darling grin, her smile toothed and glittering brighter than any star, and Apple thinks that maybe, with her smile too wide and uneven to be fake, that Darling just might be truthfully enjoying herself, perhaps less for the dance, and more for the chance to blur the lines of what is expected, and what is normal.

"Sure." Apple says, grabbing Darling's hand, her mind spun into a blur by how fast the space between them turned from friendly to suddenly intimate, hand to hand, chest to chest. Darling is warmer than dragon's fire, heating Apple up from every point of contact, her hand in Apple's, the touch on her waist, an infectious flame that consumes instead of spreads, until Apple is no longer quite certain who the heat truly originated from.

She dances, Darling dances, they both dance, well worn steps falling to the back of her mind as a steady rhythm sounds in her mind, beats a rhythm that let's her think only of Darling, of her hands, her gentle voice, of the smile that even now still lights up her face.

"You know," Darling says, close enough that her whisper sounds loud enough to fill up Apple's every thought, "since we're not as bound to binaries as everyone else here, we can switch places."

"What?"

"You can lead, if you want."

"I don't know how."

Darling smiles reassuringly. "Isn't this what practice is for though? To learn?"

Apple nods, and their hands twist and change, a minor dance of their own, and Apple feels like she is floundering, as if she is a river fish dropped into the wide ocean. She tries to step, but finds Darling's foot already there, and she almost falls, beyond grateful for Darling's strong arms saving her from further embarrassment.

"Sorry." She says, her heart nearly stopping when Darling stares straight in her eyes and smiles, brighter than ever.

"It's okay. You're doing pretty great, you know."

They start again, and Apple focuses on her movements, wrapping her every stumble, and every single one of Darling's whispered encouragements into herself, letting them build, incite the exciting newness of this dance.

By the time the music finally splutters into it's end, Apple feels as if she has forgotten the very controls to her own body, not quite sure where her hands to be, where she should stand, because when Darling steps away from her, drops their contact, the loss of her touch makes Apple wonder what reason to exist her hands have anymore, if not to hold hers.

"I'll see you around Apple." Darling says, winking as she turns, fast enough to miss the reddening of Apple's face.

"Well, it looked like you had fun." Raven says as she walks over to her, laughing as Apple's face grows even further red. "Is Darling a good dancer?"

"...yes." Apple admits reluctantly.

"You know, she might give you private lessons if you asked." Raven says, and Apple groans in embarrassment.

But she still can't deny that it's a tempting idea.

**Author's Note:**

> School dances would have been 1000x better if they weren't so het.


End file.
